My Regular Cafe: Starbucks Reserve at Anyang Station

Translated from the Korean original.

Starbucks Reserve, Anyang Station

Opening hours: 08:00 – 22:00

How to get there

Line 1 Anyang Station, Exit 1, to the right (toward Gwanak Station), 50 m away – a 3-minute walk; 91 m from Anyang Station Exit 1

https://naver.me/xucpZyKH

There are three Starbucks stores at Anyang Station, and one of them is a place I drop by now and then when I am in the area. It is a Reserve store, so coffee lovers will know it well. From what I have heard, the coffee is brewed from small batches of beans grown in special regions, and I remember it costing about twice as much as regular coffee. Maybe that is why they give you a macaron as well – not exactly a freebie, I suppose, but they do hand it over with the coffee, haha.

I am not sure how it is these days. My partner, who does not really know coffee and is not much of a coffee drinker, had this Reserve coffee about seven years ago when someone treated us. And he still remembers the taste – he brings it up now and then and says that was the best coffee he ever had. Hahaha.

Oddly enough, I am the one who loves coffee, and I drank it with him that day. It was good, but I do not think it was so good that I would still remember it seven years later… haha. I have been to plenty of cafes famous for great coffee over those seven years, so the Reserve coffee must have left quite an impression on him, heh.

Anyway, Reserve stores seem to design their interiors differently from regular branches too. They have bar-style seating – the kind where you sit facing the counter. At the Reserve cafe in Gwanghwamun, plenty of people were sitting at the bar as well.

When I went to the Anyang Station branch it was early morning, so there was not a single person there, haha.

It is a group table, but it looks like the kind of table where a European royal court would seat its courtiers in a row for a meal…

Maybe my imagination just runs wild, haha. The feel of the solid wood has something to do with it. There are bar stools on this side as well, so the counter is almost entirely surrounded – the baristas cannot escape!! Haha.

That day the person I went with treated me. She loves Starbucks merchandise, especially the planner at this time of year. She gives one to each of her children and has them write a diary entry every day. I think that is a lovely idea, too. The Starbucks planner costs around KRW 10,000, and with its hardcover, Moleskine-style material, both the colors and the durability are good. I take a look every year, but I always figure I would not really use one, so I never get as far as buying it.

That day we stayed for about two hours, sipping our drinks and chatting comfortably. I visit this place about once a month too, so I suppose I can call it one of my regular cafes? Are there any of you out there who, like me, count big chains such as Starbucks or A Twosome Place among your regular cafes? Let us share~~ ^^